CNLP 096: Larry Osborne on How to Close the Back Door at Your Church and Truly Align Your Team

Few people have been in leadership as long or effectively as Sticky Church author and North Coast Senior Pastor Larry Osborne. In a wide-ranging conversation, Larry talks about why it took so long for North Coast to grow to a large church, how to close the back door at your church and how to truly align a team.

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When you lead a church on the West Coast, your approach has to be innovative and unique. Larry Osborne has figured out what works and created simple principles that anyone can apply to their ministry.

Shift the focus. Larry says he wants to serve people so well that they should want to bring their friends. “A restaurant or movie doesn’t have to say. ‘Bring your friends.’ … I never told people to do it.” The key is to use plan language in everything you do so that it’s understood by those who have never been to church.

Place emphasis on what really matters. It’s more than mission, teaching and passion. It’s about tying people to relationship. It’s the glue that keeps people together when they start to get bored, and when they go through hard times.

Find alignment among leadership. Speak the same language and build trust among one another, because even when you disagree, you have universal verbiage being used. And you can’t have a good team without high trust. Don’t start with a bias that someone can’t be trusted; start with a bias that someone can be trusted, and hold them accountable.

The Lasting Impact Team Edition

The team edition is a compilation of eight videos designed to allow the teams in your church follow along as a supplement to the book. I highlight key points from the material and discuss additional hot topics that relate to your ministry.

Get your copy of Lasting Impact today!

Lasting Impact frames 7 pivotal conversations every church team needs to have, covering subjects like declining church attendance, team health, creating a culture volunteers love and how to engineer changes in your church.

Order on Amazon, or visit LastingImpactBook.com! The video team edition, featuring 8 videos where I teach through the key concepts in the book, is available now as well!

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Next Episode: Grant Vissers

At 25, Grant Vissers, a newlywed and fresh graduate of Princeton, started ministry at two small rural churches with his wife Konnie, and within a few months started burning out. He talks about how it happened, why it happened, and how he battled back to continue ministry in a fresh context with fresh passion (and new wisdom).

Carey, found this podcast to be very helpful – church leadership, small groups, etc. Larry mentioned that being “sticky” with small groups has helped to keep individuals in the church even when they got ticked off at something he said or did. We have had an interesting phenomena where some individuals got ticked off because they didn’t get their way about something and leave the church, but stay in their small group.